Human–computer chess matches
This article documents the progress of significant human–computer chess matches.
In 2002–2003, three human–computer matches were drawn, but, whereas Deep Blue was a specialized machine, these were chess programs running on commercially available computers.
Chess programs running on commercially available desktop computers won decisive victories against human players in matches in 2005 and 2006. The second of these, against then world champion Vladimir Kramnik is the last major human–computer match.
Since that time, chess programs running on commercial hardware—more recently including mobile phones—have been able to defeat even the strongest human players.
MANIAC (1956)
In 1956
Mac Hack VI (1966–1968)
In 1966
In 1967, several MIT students and professors (organized by Seymour Papert) challenged Dr. Hubert Dreyfus to play a game of chess against Mac Hack VI. Dreyfus, a professor of philosophy at MIT, wrote the book What Computers Can’t Do, questioning the computer's ability to serve as a model for the human brain. He also asserted that no computer program could defeat even a 10-year-old child at chess. Dreyfus accepted the challenge. Herbert A. Simon, an artificial intelligence pioneer, watched the game. He said, "it was a wonderful game—a real cliffhanger between two woodpushers with bursts of insights and fiendish plans ... great moments of drama and disaster that go in such games." The computer was beating Dreyfus when he found a move which could have captured the enemy queen. The only way the computer could get out of this was to keep Dreyfus in checks with its own queen until it could fork the queen and king, and then exchange them. That is what the computer did. Soon, Dreyfus was losing. Finally, the computer checkmated Dreyfus in the middle of the board.[2]
In the spring of 1967, Mac Hack VI played in the Boston Amateur championship, winning two games and drawing two games. Mac Hack VI beat a 1510 United States Chess Federation player. This was the first time a computer won a game in a human tournament. At the end of 1968, Mac Hack VI achieved a rating of 1529. The average rating in the USCF was near 1500.[3]
Chess x.x (1968–1978)
In 1968, Northwestern University students Larry Atkin, David Slate and Keith Gorlen began work on Chess (Northwestern University). On 14 April 1970 an exhibition game was played against Australian Champion Fred Flatow, the program running on a Control Data Corporation 6600 model. Flatow won easily. On 25 July 1976, Chess 4.5 scored 5–0 in the Class B (1600–1799) section of the 4th Paul Masson chess tournament in Saratoga, California. This was the first time a computer won a human tournament. Chess 4.5 was rated 1722. Chess 4.5 running on a
David Levy's bet (1978)
For a long time in the 1970s and 1980s, it remained an open question whether any chess program would ever be able to defeat the expertise of top humans. In 1968, International Master David Levy made a famous bet that no chess computer would be able to beat him within ten years. He won his bet in 1978 by beating Chess 4.7 (the strongest computer at the time).
Cray Blitz (1981)
In 1981, Cray Blitz scored 5–0 in the Mississippi State Championship. In round 4, it defeated Joe Sentef (2262) to become the first computer to gain a master rating (2258) and only the third computer to beat a chess master in tournament play, after previous reported wins by "BELLE of Bell Laboratories" and "Control Data Corporation's CHESS 4.9".[6]
HiTech (1988)
In 1988, HiTech won the Pennsylvania State Chess Championship with a score of 4½–½. HiTech defeated International Master Ed Formanek (2485).[7]
The Harvard Cup Man versus Computer Chess Challenge was organized by Harvard University. There were six challenges from 1989 until 1995. They played in Boston and New York City. In each challenge the humans scored higher and the highest scorer was a human.[8][9]
Year Men–computer Human points Computer points Winner Points Best program Points Rank 1989 4–4 13½ 2½ Boris Gulko, Michael Rohde 4 Deep Thought 1 5 1991 4–4 12 4 Maxim Dlugy 3½ Heuristic Alpha 2 5 1992 5–5 18 7 Michael Rohde 5 Socrates 3 3 1993 6–6 27 9 Joel Benjamin 5 Socrates 3 6 1994 6–8 29½ 18½ Joel Benjamin 6½ WChess 5 4 1995 6–6 23½ 12½ Joel Benjamin 4½ Virtual Chess 3½ 4
The Aegon Man–Machine Tournaments (1986–1997)
The 12 Aegon Man–Machine Tournaments were held annually from 1986 to 1997. The Dutch Computer Chess Federation (CSVN) organized the Aegon Man–Machine Tournaments in
100 players played in the 1997 tournament. Computers won 151 ½ points. Humans won 148 ½ points. Yona Kosashvili scored highest for the humans at 6 points out of 6 games. Kallisto scored highest for the computers at 4 ½ points.[10]
Year Players Rounds Human points Computer points Winner Points Best program Points Rank 1986 2 × 11 7 Fred van der Vliet 6 Rebel 4½ 5 1987 2 × 13 6 Martin Voorn 6 Mephisto Dallas 16 bit 4½ 3 1988 2 × 16 6 Lex Jongsma 6 Mephisto Mega 4 4 7 1989 2 × 16 6 57½ 23 Ad van den Berg 5 Chess Challenger 3½ 8 1990 2 × 14 6 47 37 HiTech 5 HiTech 5 1 1991 2 × 20 6 John van der Wiel 6 MChess 4 8 1992 2 × 24 6 84 60 David Bronstein 6 Mephisto 68030 4 8 1993 2 × 32 6 David Bronstein 5½ The King 5 3 1994 2 × 38 6 114 114 Larry Christiansen 5½ Gideon 4½ 5 1995 2 × 48 6 132 155 John van der Wiel 5½ Hiarcs 5 2 1996 2 × 50 6 137½ 162½ Yasser Seirawan 6 Quest 4½ 5 1997 2 × 50 6 148½ 151½ Yona Kosashvili 6 Kallisto 4½ 4
Deep Thought (1989)
In 1988,
In 1989, Levy was defeated by the computer Deep Thought in an exhibition match.
Deep Thought, however, was still considerably below World Championship Level, as the then reigning
Chess Genius (1994)
The "Chess Genius" program was entered into a
Kasparov–Deep Blue (1996–1997)
1996
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Kasparov played a six-game match against
1997
In May 1997, an updated version of
In game 6, Kasparov blundered very early into the game. Kasparov cites tiredness and unhappiness with the IBM team's conduct at the time as the main reason.
Kasparov claimed that several factors weighed against him in this match. In particular, he was denied access to Deep Blue's recent games, in contrast to the computer's team that could study hundreds of Kasparov's.
After the loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players, in contravention of the rules, intervened. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play revealed during the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's log files but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs on the Internet.[12][when?] Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM refused and dismantled Deep Blue.
Kasparov maintains that he was told the match was to be a scientific project but that it soon became apparent that IBM wanted only to beat him for the company's advertisement.
Anand–REBEL (1998)
With increasing processing power, Chess programs running on regular workstations began to rival top flight players. In 1998,
Deep Junior at Dortmund (2000)
Round White Elo Black Elo Result Moves ECO 1 Bareev, E 2702 Deep Junior ½–½ 146 D46 2 Deep Junior Huebner, R 2615 1–0 39 C04 3 Adams, M 2755 Deep Junior ½–½ 84 C68 4 Deep Junior Khalifman, A 2667 ½–½ 129 B08 5 Kramnik, V 2770 Deep Junior 1–0 65 D00 6 Deep Junior Akopian, V 2660 ½–½ 89 B00 7 Anand, V 2762 Deep Junior ½–½ 35 D05 8 Deep Junior Piket, J 2649 0–1 68 B15 9 Leko, P 2740 Deep Junior 0–1 120 C48
Kramnik–Deep Fritz (2002)
In October 2002,
Kramnik was given several advantages in his match against Fritz when compared to most other human–computer matches, such as the one Kasparov lost against Deep Blue in 1997. The code of Fritz was frozen some time before the first match, and Kramnik was given a copy of Fritz to practice with for several months. Another difference was that in games lasting more than 56 moves, Kramnik was allowed to adjourn until the following day, during which time he could use his copy of Fritz to aid him in his overnight analysis of the position.[15]
Kramnik won games 2 and 3 by "conventional" anti-computer tactics—play conservatively for a long-term advantage the computer is not able to see in its game tree search. Fritz, however, won game 5 after a severe blunder by Kramnik. Game 6 was described by the tournament commentators as "spectacular". Kramnik, in a better position in the early middlegame, tried a piece sacrifice to achieve a strong tactical attack, a strategy known to be highly risky against computers, who are at their strongest defending against such attacks. True to form, Fritz found a watertight defense, and Kramnik's attack petered out, leaving him in a bad position. Kramnik resigned the game, believing the position lost. However, post-game human and computer analysis has shown that the Fritz program was unlikely to have been able to force a win, and Kramnik effectively sacrificed a drawn position. The final two games were draws. Given the circumstances, most commentators still rate Kramnik the stronger player in the match.[citation needed]
Kasparov–Deep Junior (2003)
In January 2003, Kasparov engaged in a six-game classical time control match with a $1 million prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" World Championship, against
Kasparov–X3D Fritz (2003)
In November 2003, Kasparov engaged in a four-game match against the computer program X3D Fritz (which was said to have an estimated rating of 2807),[citation needed] using a virtual board, 3D glasses and a speech recognition system. After two draws and one win apiece, the X3D Man–Machine match ended in a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 for the result and took home the golden trophy. Kasparov continued to criticize the blunder in the second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed the machine overall and played well. "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."
Man vs Machine World Team Championship (2004–2005)
The Man vs Machine World Team Championships were two chess tournaments in Bilbao, Spain, between leading chess grandmasters and chess computers. Both were convincingly won by the computers. A second name for the tournaments is Human vs. Computers World Team Matches.
2004
In October 2004,
- Ponomariov–Hydra, 0–1
- Fritz–Karjakin, 1–0
- Deep Junior–Topalov, ½–½
- Karjakin–Deep Junior, 1–0
- Ponomariov–Fritz, ½–½
- Topalov–Hydra, ½–½
- Deep Junior–Ponomariov, ½–½
- Hydra–Karjakin, 1–0
- Fritz–Topalov, 1–0
- Hydra–Ponomariov, 1–0
- Karjakin–Fritz, 0–1
- Topalov–Deep Junior, ½–½
2005
In November 2005, 3 former FIDE world chess champions—Alexander Khalifman, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov—played against computers Hydra, Junior and Fritz. The computers won 8 to 4.[20][21] The Ponomariov vs Fritz game on 21 November 2005[22] is the last known win by a human against a top-performing computer under normal chess tournament conditions.[23]
- Ponomariov–Junior, 0–1
- Hydra–Kasimdzhanov, 1–0
- Fritz–Khalifman, 1–0
- Ponomariov–Fritz, 1–0
- Kasimdzhanov–Junior, ½–½
- Khalifman–Hydra, ½–½
- Hydra–Ponomariov, 1–0
- Fritz–Kasimdzhanov, ½–½
- Junior–Khalifman, 1–0
- Ponomariov–Junior, ½–½
- Kasimdzhanov–Hydra, ½–½
- Khalifman–Fritz, ½–½
Hydra–Adams (2005)
In 2005, Hydra, a dedicated chess computer with custom hardware and sixty-four processors and also winner of the 14th IPCCC in 2005, crushed seventh-ranked Michael Adams 5½–½ in a six-game match. While Adams was criticized for not preparing as well as Kasparov and Kramnik had, some commentators saw this as heralding the end of human–computer matches.[24]
Kramnik–Deep Fritz (2006)
Kramnik, then still the World Champion, played a six-game match against the computer program
In the first five games, Kramnik steered the game into a typical "anti-computer" positional contest. On 25 November, the first game ended in a draw at the 47th move.[27] A number of commentators believe Kramnik missed a win.[28] Two days later, the second game resulted in a victory for Deep Fritz, when Kramnik made what Susan Polgar called the "blunder of the century", when he failed to defend against a threatened mate-in-one in an even position.[29] (See also Deep Fritz vs. Vladimir Kramnik blunder.) The third, fourth and fifth games in the match ended in draws.
In the final game, in an attempt to draw the match, Kramnik played the more aggressive Sicilian Defence and was crushed,[30] losing the match 4–2.
There was speculation that interest in human–computer chess competition would plummet as a result of the 2006 Kramnik–Deep Fritz match. According to McGill University computer science professor Monty Newborn, for example, "I don’t know what one could get out of it [a further match] at this point. The science is done."[31]
Rybka odds matches (2007–2008)
Since 2007,
In September 2008, Rybka played an odds match against Vadim Milov, its strongest opponent yet in an odds match (Milov at the time had an Elo rating of 2705, 28th in the world). The result was a narrow victory to Milov—he had won 1½–½ when given pawn-and-move, and 2½–1½ (1 win, 3 draws) when given exchange odds but playing black. In two standard games (Milov had white, no odds), Rybka won 1½–½.[33]
Pocket Fritz 4 (2009)
In 2009, a chess engine running on slower hardware, a 528 MHz HTC Touch HD
Pocket Fritz 3 using version 12.1 of Hiarcs won the same event the previous year with six wins and four draws, running on a 624 MHz HP iPAQ hx2790. The 2008 Mercosur Cup was a category 7 tournament. Pocket Fritz 3 achieved a performance rating of 2690.[36]
Komodo handicap matches (2015)
In 2015, a chess engine Komodo played a series of handicap matches with GM Petr Neuman.[37] Neuman won the match.
Komodo handicap matches (2020)
In 2020, chess engine Komodo played a series of handicap matches with Australian GM David Smerdon at knight odds.[38] Smerdon won 5–1, in spite of most commentators who favored Komodo to win. In November 2020, Komodo trained by an NNUE reinforcement learning algorithm, played 8 15-minute games against top grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura given double-pawn odds. Nakamura lost the match, drawing 3, losing 5, and winning 0.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Douglas, J R (December 1978). "Chess 4.7 versus David Levy". BYTE. p. 84. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ^ "Mac Hack - Chessprogramming wiki". www.chessprogramming.org. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
- ^ Wall, Bill. "Early Computer Chess Programs". Bill Wall's Wonderful World of Chess. Chessville. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ Wall, Bill. "The Slate/Atkin program CHESS x.x". Chess.com. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ "Tiny Computer Sends Chess Foe Down Tube". Milwaukee Journal. Washington Post Service. 10 December 1978. pp. Discover 1. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ Robert Hyatt (1981). "Checkmate: The Cray-1 Plays Chess" (PDF). Cray Channels. 3 (2). Cray Research. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ Hans Berliner (1988). "HITECH Becomes First Computer Senior Master". AI Magazine. 9 (3): 85–87. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ "Harvard Cup". Wiki Space Chess Programming. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Harvard Cup Human vs. Computer Chess Challenge". the Dutch Computer Chess Federation. Archived from the original on 6 November 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Aegon Tournaments". Chess Programming Wiki. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- USENET, 4 September 1994. Retrieved 27 March 2008.
- ^ Deep Blue the Match Replay the games IBM
- ^ Rebel vs Anand
- ^ "Computer Deep Junior Games". 365 Chess. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ Do Not Pass Go by Devid Levy, Guardian Unlimited, 2002-10-24, Retrieved 2006-09-25.
- ^ "Kasparov vs Deep Junior in January 2003". ChessBase. 15 November 2002. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
- ^ "Kasparov: "Intuition versus the brute force of calculation"". CNN. 10 February 2003. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
- ^ Shabazz, Damian. "Kasparov & Deep Junior fight 3–3 to draw!". The Chess Drum. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
- ^ "Bilbao Man vs Machine – a resume". Chess Base. 16 October 2004.
- ^ "8:4 final score for the machines – what next?". ChessBase. 24 November 2005.
- ^ "Bilbao man vs machine". ChessBase. November 2005.
- ^ "Bilbao – the humans strike back". ChessBase. 22 November 2005.
- ^ "Ruslan Ponomariov vs Fritz (Computer) (2005) Puttin' on the Fritz".
- ^ ChessBase.com – Chess News – Adams vs Hydra: Man 0.5 – Machine 5.5
- ^ The last man vs machine match?, translated from Spiegel Online, 23 November 2006.
- ^ Official rules of the match Kramnik vs. Fritz, from Susan Polgar's blog.
- ^ Echo.MSK.ru[bare URL][dead link]
- ^ Seirawan on Kramnik vs Deep Fritz game one (in Russian).
- ^ Blunder of the century.
- ^ Kramnik vs Deep Fritz: Computer wins match by 4:2, Chessbase News, 6 December 2006.
- ^ "Once Again, Machine Beats Human Champion at Chess". The New York Times. 5 December 2006. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
- Chessbase, 9 August 2008
- Chessbase, 24 September 2008
- ^ Pocket Fritz 4 wins Copa Mercosur Archived 30 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Tsukrov, Stanislav (1 September 2009). "The New Pocket Fritz 4(Hiarcs) Wins in Mercosur 2009 9.5/10". HIARCS Chess Forums. HIARCS. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
Not so many. <20kNps in the early positions, like any other device.
- ^ Crowther, Mark (11 August 2008). "THE WEEK IN CHESS 718". TWIC. London Chess Centre. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
The Copa Mercosur took place 29th July – 7th August 2008. Pocket Fritz 3 won the event with 8/10.
- ^ "Komodo 9 odds matches against GMS". 22 September 2015.
- ^ "Smerdon Beats Komodo 5-1 with Knight Odds".